Cannot remove the CV axle from the hub?

The area circled in green is the specific place/part I’m struggling with. The axle nut was only on a couple threads in this photo, in case it did pop free. I had the tie rod, lower ball joint, and upper control arm nuts on a few threads just to help keep the knuckle steady when I took the picture as well.
I thought about heat, but vaguely remembered reading somewhere that it could ruin the wheel bearing if you torch the axle; so I wasn’t sure if that was a good idea quite yet. So when I tried that, I used a butane torch instead of propane to limit the heat.
I thought about attempting to get enough of a gap to press the lower ball out and press in the new one with the cv still connected. How bad of an idea would it be to separate the ball joint from the lower control arm and jacking the hub up and then prying the lower control arm down to widen the gap?
I plan to work on it again in the afternoon tomorrow and will get pictures that would be far more helpful than the one attached now

Okay, I just wanted to give you an update about this. I ended up having to get a FWD hub puller that used the wheel studs and Lugnut's to hold it onto the wheel and a center bolt to push the axle out.
After finally getting it out I inspected the splines and wasn’t surprised at all that it wasn’t easy to get it out with as much corrosion and junk as there was. So, I cleaned the heck out of it and made sure the splines weren’t damaged, which they weren’t.
I was warned that using the puller could cause damage if the CV isn’t removed from the differential, so I did. When reinstalling it, it went right in with minimal effort; but now the wheel doesn’t seem to spin smoothly? It easily turns about half a spin then it gets really stiff for about half a spin before freeing up again.
Could it be installed incorrectly or something?